As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, my parents were completely consumed with the idea of “safety”. Judging by the elbow and knee pads they made me wear to play basketball, I was convinced that I was in constant danger. Was my school safe? Would I be kidnapped if I exposed my Spider-man wallet in public for more than a second? As an adult, I realized that a neighborhood is just a platform – a foundation on which you build your life – or your business. As our economy shifted from building Model T’s to KFC’s, businesses took America’s stable platform for granted.  From Korean grocers in The Bronx to Best Buys in Compton, even our most daring businesses can rely on (mostly) safe streets, good transportation to bring in customers, and phone lines to process payments and inevitably, dial 911. Even the most dire circumstances rarely threaten the existence of the business itself.  Not so in the digital world.  There, the platform isn’t public; it’s owned by a private business with shifting motives, profit pressures, and other nefarious powers only a venture capitalist and his mother could love. In mobile, many entrepreneurs rely on a stack of two or three platforms locked in an eternal, high stakes dance battle, like West Side Story with iPhones instead of knives. Having worked with lots of start-ups, this post will help entrepreneurs understand platform risk, help them manage through it, and explain why angry birds don’t have Facebook pages.